Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing server, a printing system, and a printing method.
Related Art
Provided is a service that makes it possible for a user to operate an information terminal (mainly a personal computer (PC)) and select contents (images) published on a specific site on the internet, to download that to an information terminal, and to print it using a printer connected to the information terminal.
Also, as related technology, known is an event image publishing system that browses images published on a photo album site by a server device from an image browsing terminal, and when the server device receives an image print order from the image browsing terminal, it sends the print order to an online print site (see Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-197968).
As with the service described above, the action of the user operating the information terminal to access a specific site on the internet and select desired content within the site requires many operations by the user, so cannot be called an easy action. Also, there are cases when for the purpose of content protection, in the specific site described above, it is necessary to have a dedicated application software or plug-in for browsing or downloading contents. In such a case, the user is forced to take the trouble to install the dedicated application software or plug-in, and this is a factor in it being difficult to expand usage by users. Also, when the user does not have an environment on which the dedicated application software or plug-in will operate (OS, web browser or the like), the user is not able to use the service described above in any case.
With Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-197968, images uploaded to the photo album site can be downloaded to the user's own image browsing terminal, so there is a problem from the perspective of content protection. Also, with Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-197968, since the constitution has printing ordered to an online print site, it is not possible to specify the printer to use as is the case with printing on the printer the user has, so this cannot be said to be convenient for the user.
Also, as a problem common to the service described above and Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-197968, use of the service and system tends to stay within the range of users who are aware of the existence of the specific site or photo album site, and there is an aspect of it being difficult to try to expand the number of users from the service or system providing side as well.